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Sathya
Sai Education in Human Values (UK)
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Dear Readers Welcome to the August 2005 issue of the email newsletter. This month:
To reserve your place at the SSEHV National Day on Saturday September 17th, please contact Pamela Nash (+44 (0) 1784 244494). More information about the event is available at www.ssehv.org.uk. If you have any feedback about this newsletter, or if you'd like to share your experiences of SSEHV, please write to us. Kind
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Michelle White, one of BISSE's lead trainers, reports. We have had an amazing summer in Shrewsbury. It started a couple of weeks ago with a four-day intensive Sathya Sai Values In Parenting Programme and at the same time a four-day Values Alive event for the children. We have just completed an Intensive Foundation Training, which ran from 7th to 13th August, the last day being session seven where participants did their presentations. Here is some feedback from a few of the participants: I found the course to be excellent, from all points of view; the content, the materials, the presentation, the location and the organisation. As well as focusing on the material and learning about it, I feel as though I have had during this week, an experience of the values being lived out amongst members of the group. The standard was excellent and the experience very enjoyable as well as inspiring. Many thanks. Christina (ex secondary school teacher) I have found the course informative, inspirational and very thought-provoking. It has helped me on a personal level, because the clarity and essence of the material and the way it was presented, has reaffirmed for me the belief in the importance of teaching and my commitment to my new job. I don't feel I got this from nine months of teacher training. I feel the space created by the course also facilitated amazing personal and interpersonal bonding and I have loved the whole experience and made some beautiful friendships. Rachel (primary school teacher) I have been looking for so many years for something like this and I have finally found it. Christine
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A successful Values Alive Event (or 'Camp' as they are commonly known) was recently held at a primary school in Brent, and we reproduce below comments by camp organiser, Joyce Power, together with some of the feedback received. Thank you to all the volunteers for the time and effort you put into the camp. It was very much appreciated and I know that the children would have benefited from your hard work and example. I was very pleased to see definite positive changes in some of the most challenging children in my class and I assume that this would have been the case in all classes. There were many children with learning difficulties and the ease of the activities and atmosphere of the camp would have facilitated better learning and retention of the values. It is always important to keep in mind that the children are not there to learn the activities, but rather to experience the values. The activities are only tools for experiencing the values in a fun way and through the example of the volunteers. Hence we do not necessarily adopt normal teaching methods for learning to occur, or normal forms of school discipline to manage 'difficult' behaviour. - Joyce Power
Once again, thank you for the privilege of attending the Camp and being a classroom assistant. Not sure who benefited more, me, or the children; I learnt so much and not only about teaching techniques. I found feeding the children positive comments, even on their bad behaviour, that is, emphasizing their goodness, paid off very well. Positive stimulus and encouragement, I think, could be the camp motto, for this is how I found all teachers and assistants to be. They were there with the firm belief that the children are innately good, and eliciting this through the teaching of the values is and was, of great benefit to them. I hope, as you said, that they will benefit from it all in the long-term and that they remember it in their times of need. One incident, on the last day to exemplify this point: On way back to class, I think it was on the last day; Matthew had just had a kicking, hitting fight with two other boys. Matthew being on his own now, I approached him and reminded him that , unlike common belief, it is not a sign of strength to hit out in that way and one loses all one's peace, if one reacts like that. I stressed his brightness, his innate goodness and courage and his choice to act in the correct way, and to move away from such a situation, if need be and that doing so was a sign of strength. We walked on, catching up with the rest of the class. One little girl was sitting on the floor crying, having been accidentally tripped over by one of the boys. All the rest of the children were just looking on, or not. Matthew, with the greatest care and love I have ever seen, quietly and calmly bent down and helped her up most beautifully. He then stepped into line and into the classroom. He sat down in his place and I watched as he followed instructions perfectly to pen his book, as soon as they were given!!! This is pretty amazing as this child would copy the bad behaviour of other boys and not conclude his work till he felt like it. I wished I had mentioned this to you Joyce at the time, as I really felt some extra praise and a sweet perhaps, would have further brought it home to him that good behaviour pays off. If done publicly, it could have perhaps further benefited the other children. The above, I feel, is one small example of the very good results of a value-based teaching method as seen on this Camp. I found it a great privilege to attend and witness such love and care and I feel enjoyed by the children too. I sense for them, it is a breath of fresh air and a method they respond to naturally. Thank you once again for giving me the opportunity to take part and further develop myself. For I believe such camps not only benefit the children but are also a learning and growing experience for the adults that take part! - Julie
To offer you some of my feedback, and hopefully it will help:
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Stephen, Sports Team |
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A youth worker attended the SSEHV Foundation course in Burnley in the Spring 05. She was so impressed with the content of the course that she invited my niece Julie and I to her youth club. She felt the SSEHV programme would help the children. We were asked to do some 'taster sessions', so we decided to do four fortnightly sessions. On our first visit we were surprised by the large number of children, about 70 in all, aged 8 - 13 years. It was decided that we would take a small number out of the larger group. We used the teaching components from the SSEHV manuals. Each child had their favourite component. They all seemed to enjoy drama and art work and they all benefited from the Silent Sitting once they had settled into it. Evaluations were done by the youth club staff on the first and last sessions. One girl who had been traumatised by the break up of her parents said. ''I love Julie and Barbara. They have made me love myself.'' This is what SSEHV is all about - helping children to love themselves! The staff at the youth club have asked us to do some more sessions and would like some input with senior youth aged 16 plus. We are thinking about using a ''Relationship course''. |
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By DENNISON CHISUNKA The following is an excerpt from an article published recently by the Times of Zambia online. The article provides a fascinating insight into the how the Sathya Sai method of education has led to transformation in the lives of children there and it's influence within the African continent. For the full article please use the link below the text. THE positive influence of Sathya Sai is unprecedented in the annals of education in Zambia. Sai Baba’s education ideals as embodied in his human values-based approach in education are an eye opener to educationists in Zambia. The impact and success story of Sathya Sai Baba’s innovative ideas in education are being told in what follows: John Muma, 15, comes from a poor family in Kawama township in Ndola. The boy who is an orphan was orphaned when his parents died in short succession in 1992. Suddenly his life became a nightmare, worst still his burning desire to become a lawyer was threatened when it became clear that no one could pay his school fees. His life became miserable and could only be likened to Oliver Twist, the character in Charles Dickens; classic of the same name. Just when the boy was about to give up his education, his prayers were answered when Sathya Sai boys school was opened in 1992 in Pamodzi, a walking distance from his home. John who finished his higher education at the University of Zambia in 1999, is now a successful lawyer in Lusaka. |
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Harry's Night Time Adventure by S. Nayar Harry the hedgehog lived at the edge of a large wood, in the middle of a country park. The park was used by lots of visitors for days out, or by local people who would come for walks. But Harry had hardly come across any human beings in his life so far. By day he would sleep in his burrow, and then only come out at night to search for food and explore, when few, if any, people were around. Harry loved to explore the wood. He was still quite a young hedgehog, and learning about the world around him, and he enjoyed his nightly wanderings very much. If he ever got scared, he would curl himself up into a ball, with his prickly spines pointing outwards for protection, and then stay still, until whatever scared him had passed on, which was normally what happened, and then he would continue on his way. One evening, when it was dark, Harry was walking through the undergrowth, looking for his favourite food, worms. Harry loved worms. He just couldn't get enough of them! He stopped in one place, and started digging down into the soil with his front feet. He was lucky, as just below the soil, there was a big juicy worm! Pleased at his luck, he started chomping and chewing away, feeling happy that he would soon have a full tummy. As he ate, he wondered if he would meet any of the other animals in the wood that night. He knew he must keep away from some, like Fox, but he would always say hello to others, like Badger and Rabbit, if he ever saw them. After a few minutes, when he had finished eating, Harry decided to move on and see what lay in the bush ahead of him. He twitched his little nose and sniffed, as all good hedgehogs do, and sensing no danger, walked slowly on. As he got closer to the bush, an unusual smell came to him. It was something he'd never come across before. It wasn't an animal, as he knew animal smells; it was something very strange. His curiosity got the better of him and rather than turning away to go in another direction, as he should have, he went further into the bush. The strange smell increased, and then all of a sudden he felt the ground dip and his small feet slipped on something slithery. Now, feeling scared, his instinctive reaction was to curl himself up into a ball. As he did so, his body rolled forward down the small bank of earth, before coming to a sudden stop. He lay still and frightened, wondering what had happened. The strange smell was still around him. Unknowingly, Harry had come across an empty, rolled up, wet plastic carrier bag on the ground, which had now become caught on the top of his spines as he had rolled down the bank. Lying still for some time, with nothing else happening to him, Harry became braver and moved slightly. He heard a strange rustling sound. Then stretching his body out and starting to walk, the strange sound stayed with him. Now he felt there was something on top of him, and then finally, he realised there must be something stuck to the top of his spines on his back, but he didn't know what. It had a strange smell, made a funny rustling noise, but wasn't heavy at all. He knew he had to get it off, but he didn't know how. Harry continued walking, hoping he could think of a way get rid of whatever was attached to him. After a few moments he smelled Badger. Walking in the direction the scent was coming from, Harry found himself in a little clearing where Badger was eating. "Badger," cried out Harry. "Can you help me get this thing off my back?" Badger looked up for a moment from his feeding. It was only Hedgehog. "I'm too busy eating," replied Badger. "Come back later." Disappointed, Harry carried on walking, hoping he could find someone else to help him. After another few minutes he came across Rabbit rushing along. "Rabbit, please can you help me get this strange thing off my back?" he asked. Rabbit stopped for a moment, looked at Harry and said, "I have to take care of my litter of babies," and shot off in the dark. Harry, was feeling a little desperate now, as the thing on his back was making a rustling noise again in the wind as he walked, and he was feeling scared that Fox might hear him. After another few minutes of walking, Harry heard something in the ground below, just ahead of him. Then a head popped up out of the ground. It was Mole. "Mole, please help me. There's something stuck on my back. Can you pull it off for me?" "Oh, I'm too busy making my tunnels" replied Mole, and his head disappeared down the hole again, and he was gone. Now, Harry was feeling very upset and his eyes filled with tears. Why would no one help him? Slowly, he crawled towards the nearest bush, trying to hide himself, and then started to cry. Eventually, feeling exhausted and sad, he fell asleep. The next morning, ten-year-old Jack was walking along a pathway in the woods with his father and pet Labrador, Hudson. All of a sudden, Hudson started barking at something ahead of them, next to the path. "What's bothering Hudson?" said Jack to his dad. "Oh, it just looks like some rubbish on the ground," replied his father as they walked towards what looked, from a distance, like a white object on the ground. As they got closer to where Hudson was still barking with his tail wagging madly, his father saw it was a white plastic carrier bag. Jack had run on a little ahead of him and was knelt down next to it. "Look dad," said Jack, as his father knelt down beside him. "The bag's got caught on the spines of a hedgehog." His father saw what he meant; the thin plastic of the bag had become hooked into the spines of the hedgehog. "Oh, the poor thing," he said, gently pulling the bag off the spines, until it was completely free. He put the bag in his pocket, so it would not get caught on anything else. Hudson continued barking and sniffed down at the Hedgehog, which was still curled up tightly into a ball. "Shush now, Hudson," said Jack. "You'll frighten it." Both Jack and his father got up. "Come on Jack," said his father. "Let's leave it in peace, now. It must have been terrified." They slowly walked away with Jack holding on to Hudson who had been put on a lead. "That's why it's important for people to take their rubbish away when they walk in the woods," Jack's father continued. "That hedgehog might have died with the bag caught around it." "Yes dad," replied Jack. "We were told in school about taking rubbish home and now I can see why." As they walked, he looked back for a moment at where they had seen the Hedgehog, as if to say goodbye. Harry stayed curled up tightly. He was very scared for ages after they had gone. When he was sure the danger had passed, he moved himself ever so slightly. He could no longer smell or feel the thing that had been on his back. Feeling relieved, he uncurled himself and stretched his little legs. Then, sniffing the ground around him, slowly walked back into the wood, in the direction of his burrow, not quite knowing what had happened to him.
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Copyright
© 2005 British Institute of Sathya Sai Education (BISSE). BISSE is
a non-profit organisation committed to promoting human values in education.
Registered address: The Glen, Cuckoo Hill, Pinner, Middlesex HA5 2BE United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 8429 2677 Email: feedback@ssehv.org.uk |